Should you be friends with your coworkers?

By Alison Rodericks | 10 September 2018

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It’s 3pm on any given Friday in offices all across Sydney. There’s a clear dichotomy: One half of the working population is busy tying up loose ends before they head home, the other half is winding down, ready to head to the local pub with their workmates as soon as it’s beer o’clock. To which group do you belong? Do you work in an office which promotes co-worker camaraderie and where after-work socialising is a given? Or do you prefer to keep things purely professional with your colleagues and stick to business? Should you be friends with your colleagues – does it help or hinder your working relationship?

The Pros of Workplace Friendships

Increased job satisfaction.

Social and emotional support.

Workplace friendships are based on mutual trust, respect, compatibility and caring.

Increased employee engagement.

1. Increased job satisfaction.

Most of us spend the better part of our day at work. Wouldn’t it benefit everybody if we enjoyed the company of our colleagues? Studies show that workplace friendships are linked to increased job satisfaction, job involvement, job performance, team cohesion, higher morale, organisational commitment, less time off and fewer sick days.

2. Social and emotional support.

Interestingly, there is a clear gender divide: While women are more likely to seek workplace friendships for the social and emotional support in times of stress, men view workplace friendships in terms of the benefits to their own career or in helping them complete a task or job duties.

Dr Amanda Allisey from Deakin University is an expert in occupational stress and employee health and wellbeing who believes that workplace friendships should be nurtured. She says, “We spend more time at work than ever before. Our sense of meaning and purpose can often be linked to our work, and some of our longest standing friendships can be made through the workplace.”

3. Workplace friendships are based on mutual trust, respect, compatibility and caring.

Social gatherings outside office hours – whether it’s movie night, bowling or dinner and drinks – can impact positively on your work during office hours. If you are friends with your colleagues and work well together, it’s a win-win situation. You can speak freely, ask questions, bounce ideas off each other and seek out solutions together. Quite often, friendships forged at work can last a lifetime, even after you leave the organisation, if they are based on mutual trust, respect, compatibility and caring.

A poll by the Australian Institute of Management reveals the most important factor in keeping people at their workplaces is "good relationships with co-workers". From the survey's 2223 respondents, 67 per cent of them rate this higher than job satisfaction (63 per cent), flexible work arrangements (57 per cent) or great work/life balance (52 per cent).

4. Increased employee engagement.

Furthermore, a 2012 workplace study by Gallup found that employees who have a best friend in the office are seven times more likely to be engaged in their work. This number drops to just 10 per cent when employees keep their relationships purely professional.

The Cons of Workplace Friendships

Blurring of boundaries.

Workplace friendship fallout is often disastrous.

Co-workers might question your motives.

Of course, there’s the flipside to this debate. Some people firmly believe that there is a time and a place to socialise – and your after-hour shenanigans with your colleagues isn’t it. What happens when you have a falling out with a work friend? What do you do when your office BFF moves on to another department or different job? How do you extricate yourself from a clique that gets too bitchy?

1. Blurring of boundaries.

A workplace study done by the University of Auckland Business Review says that having friends in the workplace can create numerous difficulties such as the blurring of boundaries; having to devote too much time to the friendship; and distraction from work which ultimately result in reduced productivity.

2. Workplace friendship fallout is often disastrous.

Let’s face it, when socialising with your colleagues take precedence over your job responsibilities, your work suffers. It could be smarter to keep your personal and professional lives separate because when a workplace friendship self-combusts, the fallout is often disastrous. Personal or professional information can be revealed to the wrong person at an inopportune moment, and the negative atmosphere takes a toll on your health and happiness.

On the plus side, not being besties with your co-workers means that you can be emotional neutral to office gossip and workplace politics as well as concentrate better on tasks.Just remember, you don’t have to be best mates with the people sitting in your cubicle to enjoy your job.

3. Co-workers might question your motives.

Which brings us to our next question: Should you be friends with your boss? The short answer: No. While it’s important to have a good working relationship with your boss, don’t push the relationship into ‘best mates’ territory. Your co-workers might question your motives and you could be accused of becoming the boss’s favourite, especially when it comes to promotions. An article in Harvard Business Review reveals that it is better to stay friendly – but not form strong friendships – with your manager. There is an organisational hierarchy for a reason; manager/subordinate friendships are discouraged so that performance evaluations and promotions can be conducted fairly.

How to Make Friends at Work

Take the initiative.

Get to know your co-workers.

Go to work events.

Take things slowly.

Look for similarities.

Join or start a group.

Suggest an event.

Be yourself.

Remember, you can't force friendships.

All in all, we believe that office friendships are better for business – and for the individual. But making friends at work can be intimidating – especially when you’re new to the team. Psychologist and author Ron Friedman explains in his book ‘The Best Place to Work’ that there are three ingredients necessary for workplace friendships: proximity, familiarity and similarity.

Follow these tips to start building workplace friendships:

1. Take the initiative.

Say hello first and learn your co-wrokers’ names. Go beyond the superficial small talk. Find out about their interests, their families, their pet peeves.

2. Get to know your co-workers.

In a less formal setting like after-work drinks, a team-building day, the office Christmas party or even during your lunch break.

3. Go to work events.

Make sure to participate in them – these get-togethers are less formal and you’re more likely to strike up a conversation.

4. Take things slowly.

Don’t rush into workplace friendships; in fact, be picky with who you befriend at work.

5. Look for similarities.

Strike up conversations on these topics whether it’s a sporting team you both support, a shared passion or even swapping stories on the ups and downs of raising kids the same age.

Alison Rodericks
Alison Rodericks has been writing for as long as she can remember. Rambling adventure stories as a child gave way to newspaper articles which have now morphed into online posts. She is passionate about punctuation, her kids, sustainability and burgers – though not necessarily in that order.